Entries Tagged 'social networking' ↓

I know I’ve previously written about Pownce, but after further analysis I don’t think it’s working out to be the utility that its founders envisioned it to be. Pownce is a social networking site for sharing messages, links, files and events. After using it for four weeks now, I believe that Pownce is very unfocused. It combines the features of del.icio.us, digg, facebook and box.net into a very clunky interface. The overall UI is not geared toward the mainstream crowd that would actually add some value to Pownce. Perhaps that’s why they’ve increased file sizes… “it’s not working so let’s make it a pirate site!” I am constantly sharing links, pictures and music with friends of mine but in my social circle I am the only one that’s tech saavy and that would be more inclined to use something like Pownce. My friends use the Internet primarily for Facebook, Email, News (typical college students). I’ve convinced a bunch of my friends to join Pownce but the initial interest died out because Pownce’s user interface doesn’t cater to mainstream users - even when sharing MP3’s. How? It’s just not appealing. Mainstream users do not have the patience to sign up for a application like Pownce that’s psuedo social network / filesharing. We’ve already got Facebook!

Here are a few comments from Digg that echo my theory:

SDCarter: I hate to say it; but I think that’s what Pownce is. I signed up right after it was announced because I was curious and I thought it might be interesting. Since then, I’ve successfully invited four of my friends. None of us actually used Pownce. In fact, until an article about Pownce hit front page the other day, we’d all but completely forgotten about Pownce. It’s a great idea; I just don’t see it going anywhere near mainstream.

–>Romulusx86: The MP3 sharing is great, you know, for those legal tunes you made.

Bottomline: Pownce is now just a great tool for music pirates. It will never catch on to the mainstream unless Pownce heavily markets its audio sharing capabilities - but that’ll be riddled with its own legal ramifications that Kevin Rose would not want to deal with. You should have just made a Facebook application, Kev.

I got out of the subway today, opened up the streetflow application on my iphone and I was instantly greeted with dozens of local suggestions for lunch. The suggestions were actually very informal but they work perfectly for my needs - cheap eats and reccomended dishes at various locations in the financial district (where pizza can go for five bucks a slice!).

Location aware services such as Streetflow are gonna become extremely popular once the iPhone 3G and 2.0 firmware come out within the next few weeks. In it’s essence, it’s a new take on social networking utilizing people and information that’s relevent to you and your location. Apple has a huge forefront in this new field with the iPhone. Not only is the technology vital, but open app development is essential to location based services that will soon hit the market. I’m expecting some great stuff in the coming weeks - we’ve already got greats in the jailbroken arena such as StreetFlow (restaurant suggestions), Twinkle (location aware twitter client), and iFlickr (geotagged pictures posted to your flickr account). Imagine knowing where all your friends are at a given time… Instead of an away message, you’ve got their location. A tad stalkerish, but like Twitter I think it could possibly break into a “niche” mainstream userbase.
So I’ll be trying food from Veronica’s today - it’s supposedly a famous Jamaican food cart down by the water with great food. Check back for more reviews on location aware services in the coming weeks!

Here’s a quick video overview of StreetFlow in action on Youtube.  By the way Yelp, it’s time for you to put all that information you’ve got on local businesses to use… Develop an iPhone app!

I always hate it when an application that I use on a regular basis suddenly adopts a new redesign.  Even if it’s just slight, at first glance I’ll always dislike it.  But then… I’ll grow to adore the new design and wonder how I ever used to the old format.

Facebook has come a long way from the lonely wall it used to be.  Now it incorporates so many different avenues of content and information.  A new redesign is coming in the next few weeks and I’m sure to hear plenty of my friends complaining just like they complained when the NewsFeed made its debut.

Here’s a look at the changes in the upcoming facelift.

• Expanded and interactive “Wall,” where users can generate their own content, friends can write Wall posts, and applications can publish Feed stories
• Additional tabs on the profile, where users can feature their favorite applications
• Profile boxes, which appear in the narrow column, separate from the tabs
• Profile action links

I like it.  It now seems like an enhanced version of Twitter!  I like how Facebook is vying to become a huge conglomerate of smaller independent ideas.  Rock on Zuckerberg, you are a god.

Remember the good ol’ days when you had quotes like, “too close for missles, i’m switching to guns” (from Top Gun, 1986) on the bottom of every Facebook page?  Ahh, here’s a screenshot of one of the first formal redesigns.  How far we’ve come…

There’s only one thing to do: invite/tell friends!  Pownce is geared to keep you in touch with your closest friends.  I really want all my friends on it just so we can all share our music with each other - I’ll probably pitch it to them all somehow this week.  I really like this whole unlimited space concept with the max individual file size at 100mb.  Get started today at Pownce and add me at http://pownce.com/vipin.  Be quick and get the best names now kids.  Pownce can be a little buggy right now, but its got potential.

Hmm, I wonder how long it takes to upload/download things off the Pownce server… One moment please.

UPDATE:  A threee megabyte mp3 took me less than five seconds to upload.  But it’s probably because of the sick speed Fordham hooks me up with (see below)!  Either way, when the next generation of internet technologies and speeds arrive, Pownce will be set to conquer it.  I think it’s in its most basic form now with plenty planned for later.